Germany’s parliament will hold a special session on revelations that the United States has tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, with left-wing parties demanding a public inquiry and asking to call in witnesses, including former US intelligence agent Edward Snowden.

Her conservative party, now in talks with the opposition Social Democrats on forming a new governing coalition after the Sept. 22 election, said it would not stand in the way of any parliamentary committee investigating the espionage affair.

The less time is left before ? possible signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in Vilnius, the more anti-EU propaganda appears in Ukraine. Here?s some pictures I?ve made today in the Kyiv subway.

As the old adage goes – to retain respect for sausages and governments you should not watch them being formed. To stretch the analogy, Prague remains a giant and possibly broken sausage machine trying to fuse together some unlikely ingredients into a government. Added to this the man in control of the machine, President Zeman, is by no means an impartial observer.

Germans used to joke that Chancellor Angela Merkel?s penchant for communicating via fleeting text messages effectively marked the end of traditional historiography. Well, at least American spy agencies seem to have kept full track of the behind-the-scenes communications ? in Berlin and beyond.